12 is a Number of Perfection
by Shadeehue
Summary: For the LJ Nejiten community 2007 Nejiten festival, for the '12 days of Nejiten' Challenge. 12shot drabble collection. Themes are based on '12 Days of Christmas' but not very Chrismassy at all. Nejiten, Team Gai love. Please read & review! COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**This is for the 2007 nejiten community LJ festival and this is for the 12 Days of Nejiten challenge. I originally wanted to stick it into 1 document but the document was getting too long... Enjoy anyway, I'll be uploading the next few chapters soon. Please leave a review and make my day **

** Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, I wouldn't be writing fanfic anyway if I did.  
**

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**1. Tree**

The morning smelt fresh and crisp after the storm that had raged last night. Using chakra to boost their speed, Team Gai began the journey home to Konoha as they bounded through the trees. The order they travelled in was almost always the same; Gai at the front to meet any dangers that may lie awaiting as the most experienced ninja on the team, Lee, Tenten and then Neji at the back as a watch-out.

As usual, Lee and Gai were streaking rapidly ahead, racing home, forcing Tenten and Neji to pick up their pace to keep up with them. After a chakra enhanced Gai, and then Lee both landed on a branch, it creaked ominously. Tenten, not being able to stop herself in time, then landed on the same branch.

CRACK

She gave a small shriek of surprise as she found herself suddenly falling. Tenten landed in a bush that cushioned her fall and she stayed where she was for a moment wondering why nature hated her so much. A shadow loomed over her and she looked up at Neji who had his arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

"Looks like somebody needs to go on a diet," he pointed out. The smirk on his face got even wider.

Tenten would later claim that she had blacked out after the fall and that she would never have even dreamt of using her training partner for target practice by pinning him to a tree so firmly with half her weapons arsenal it had taken Neji two whole days to free himself from where she had left him in the forest.


	2. Chapter 2

**This is a more contemplative one...I'm still trying to work on that side of my writing hehe. Enjoy anyway and please leave a review to make my day  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto franchise in anyway at all whatsoever. **

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**2. Doves  
**

It had been one of those chaotically busy markets that they had passed through on their way home from a mission. Tenten had been surprised at Neji's act of kindness in buying the two despondent looking turtle doves that were moping in their cage with the aim of setting them free. It was something Lee was more likely to do. Admittedly it had backfired on him. While they travelled in the forest, he had opened the door of the cage for the two birds to let them out but neither made a move towards freedom. Instead they continued to sit in the middle of the perch in their cage unresponsively until Neji had sighed, closed the door once more and took them home with him.

"Have you given it a name yet?" she asked him curiously as they sat on his verandah drinking green tea, watching the sun go down after a long day of training. His eyes flickered over to the bird cage that hung from his window and he shook his head.

"Nothing comes to mind, I don't want to get too attached to it anyway."

They both sat in silence as they watched the single turtle dove that remained. It continued to ignore everything around. Its companion had died soon after they had reached Konoha and it had become even more listless. "It's been caged for too long," Tenten finally said. It was sad, the bird was probably going to die soon after all of Neji's attempts to give it the freedom it had lacked for so long. To him, it was a kindred spirit, he too had once been a caged bird and it had become a kind of personal mission for him to set every caged bird he came across free.

"I think it's eating more now," he replied quietly. He didn't sound very convinced, even to himself.

Tenten didn't answer; she patted him lightly on the back instead. She wasn't sure how to comfort him.

The next day, Neji was almost fifteen minutes late for training which was highly unusual for him. Tenten had glared at him with extreme annoyance at first but her expression softened when she noticed his distress. "What happened Neji?" she asked concernedly.

"The dove disappeared without a trace; I don't know whether it was eaten by some animal… I tried to find it with my Byakugen but I couldn't find it anywhere."

"Maybe it finally decided to take its freedom," Tenten pointed out.

He turned his pale eyes up to the sky, "Let's hope so."


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you to the three people who actually reviewed XP This chapter is dedicated to you demona013 because you're a champ cos you take the time to drop me a line or two all the time. I hope you like it As always, enjoy and please leave a review and make my day!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto **

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**3. Wine  
**

"I don't think this is a very good idea," stated Neji as he crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at his team mate.

"Oh come on, you don't even have to drink if you want to, it's just a Christmas party the Sand Siblings are throwing," said Tenten with the largest pair of puppy dog eyes she could manage.

He couldn't resist it; it would have been like resisting the urge to beat Lee to a pulp every time he issued one of his ridiculous challenges. "Fine, I'll come along if only to make sure that Kankurou doesn't try to make a pass at you."

"Don't worry, Temari and I always kick his sorry ass if he tries anything funny."

* * *

Neji should have known better than to go to one of the Sand Sibling's wild alcohol infused parties. He was also surprised at what a party animal his normally sensible team mate could be. Tenten had challenged Temari to a drinking game, being determined to beat her at something and could surprisingly hold her liquor well. Both kunoichi were going to need a liver transplant soon if they kept up this amount of drinking. A small crowd had gathered around and shinobi were placing bets on who would pass out or throw up first. Tenten and Temari both tossed back another glass of cheap wine and wiped their mouths with the back of their hands. 

"Another one," they both said in slurred unison. It was going to be close. Neji had placed a bet on Tenten out of loyalty.

Tenten swayed dangerously after taking her last glass for a few seconds, she looked extremely…giddy. Temari slowly turned green and covered her mouth with both hands before stumbling to find the bucket that Shikamaru had provided, foreseeing how the contest was likely to end.

"Alright! Tenten wins this round!" declared Naruto loudly over the sounds of Temari puking her guts out in the background. The blonde ramen-loving ninja held Tenten's arm up triumphantly but this caused her to lose her balance and trip.

Neji managed to catch her before her head hit the ground. He glared at Naruto for being so careless before turning to his team mate with worriedly. "Are you ok Tenten?"

She giggled and struggled to stand but failed miserably. "I'm absolutely fine Neji." She peered intently into his eyes, "Did you know that you are like the prettiest guy I know?"

Neji was at a slight loss of words. Was that meant to be a compliment or insult?

"I like pretty guys, can I have your babies so I can have pretty children?" she asked him cheerfully before passing out.

Neji nearly passed out as well.


	4. Chapter 4

**I know this one is a little bit silly... but I want my banner dammit! If it wasn't for the LJ nejiten festival, I would be sitting in front of my computer bemoaning the fact that I have writer's block for my other fics. Thank you to demona013, claymade and WT for reviewing this series so far! **

**Disclaimer: Naruto I own do not **

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**4. Call  
**

"I think I have a stalker," Tenten confided in Neji as they sat in Ichiraku eating lunch.

Neji froze inside, "Why would anyone stalk you?" he asked sounding sceptical.

"Well this person keeps calling me and whenever I pick up the phone, it's just silence on the other end. I keep expecting some creepy heavy breathing to start but whoever it is hangs up after about 5 seconds, it's really weird."

"Hn."

"I even did the recall thing to find out what number it is that person is calling me from but it's a private unlisted number so I can't find out who it is." Tenten sighed and poked at her noodles with the chopsticks. "Do you think it's a creepy stalker or a secret admirer?"

"Is there a difference?"

"I guess not." Tenten pushed her bowl away and turned to him, "Time to get back to training."

Neji nodded and finished his tea.

* * *

Tenten had just gotten out of her shower when her phone started ringing. It'd better not be that silent caller again, she thought to herself sourly as she grabbed a towel and raced to pick up the phone. "Hello?" 

Silence.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" she snapped.

_Meanwhile…_

Neji closed his eyes and opened his mouth, willing himself to speak but nothing came out. He finally replaced the phone quietly before taking a few deep breaths. There was progress today, he hadn't simply frozen, he had almost said 'hello' back. Next time he would be able to talk to her and ask her to have dinner with him.


	5. Chapter 5

**This is probably more of a oneshot cos of the length... meh. This is dedicated to my friend I.Heart.Hatake.Kakashi, I hope you like your belated Christmas gift I apologise in advance for any dodgy romance writing, I don't usually do lovey dovey stuff... But still, thank you to everyone who's reviewed so far**! Oh yeah, happy new year everyone!

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but I do own a little Naruto keychain **

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**5. Rings  
**

"What kind of rings do girls like?"

Tenten stopped in her tracks. That was an unusual question by itself, and it sounded even more unusual coming from him. "Neji, are you buying a ring for a girlfriend?" she asked mildly. One that I don't know about, she added to herself bitterly.

He took a moment to answer as he gazed into the distance. "I guess you could say that."

She should have seen it coming, always being too scared to tell him how she really felt about him and ruining the precious friendship they had. They were best friends and they knew almost everything about each other, except how she really felt about him. Tenten wasn't sure how he really felt about her either because of his reserved nature. It was difficult to know what he was thinking or feeling most of the time. "Well it depends on the girl, does she like silver or gold? Does she have a favourite gemstone?" She was going to be a good friend to him even if it killed her.

"I'm not really sure, she doesn't wear jewellery very often," he admitted. He gave her a tiny bashful smile that made butterflies flutter in her stomach. "Maybe you can help me pick out a Christmas present for her today?" He watched her reaction intently, he seemed expectant.

Tenten shrugged as nonchalantly as she could and forced a cheerful smile, "Sure!" She began walking quickly towards the main shopping district in Konoha. Neji stared after her with an unreadable expression before following.

"So does she like pretty, girly things?" she asked him finally when they walked together. He had his hands shoved deep into his pockets and he seemed deep in thought.

"She's the type to prefer simple, elegant things I believe," he replied in his deep baritone.

Tenten stopped suddenly in front of a jewellery shop window, her back to him. She blinked frantically, her eyes felt hot and she thought her heart was about to break. She wanted to tell him that she loved him so badly but she couldn't do that to him now, not when he was about to find happiness finally. He had been unhappy for so long when he was young and he seemed to finally be at peace with himself. She didn't want to become a new source of pain for him. The brown haired girl took a deep breath and finally pointed at a ring in the window, "What about that one?" She pointed at a gaudy looking ring with a large emerald gem on it. It was disgusting but she secretly hoped that giving such an ugly ring would make the girl lose interest in Neji.

He pursed his lips together doubtfully, "I don't really think that's her type. It's too…flamboyant"

She marched over to the next jewellery display window and pointed at a nicer ring, it was gold with a ruby heart gem set in it.

Neji studied it thoughtfully, "Is it something you would wear?"

Tenten shook her head, "Gold is too soft a metal. I prefer silver or platinum, it's more like steel."

He shook his head and they strolled over to the next window display. Tenten then saw the perfect ring. It was five, thin, intertwining platinum rings that were worn as a single ring. (1)

Neji saw her staring at it. It was simple yet beautiful. "I like it too, I think it's perfect," he murmured into her ear.

Tenten jumped and she spun around to face him. "It's gorgeous she'll love it," she said quietly, looking down at her feet. "My work here's done, I have stuff to do at home," Tenten managed to choke out before fleeing.

Neji stared after her with a bewildered expression on his face.

_The next day…_

Red-rimmed brown eyes met red-rimmed brown eyes. Tenten sighed as she studied herself in the mirror. She looked terrible, like she had cried herself to sleep. It had to be that time of the month, she didn't usually let her emotions affect her that much but whenever it came to Neji… her emotions went haywire. Whilst splashing her face with icy cold water to wake her up, she heard her doorbell to her apartment ring. Quickly drying her face, she softly padded to the door and opened it. "Neji! What are you doing here?" she almost yelped.

He blinked, taking in her newly woken form. Her hair was down and messy and she was only wearing a thin grey singlet with short red boxers which had pandas all over it. Tenten wanted to sink into the ground and die. Her boxers were about 10 years old and were a childhood favourite of hers that she could never bear to throw out.

'I just wanted to give you this, Merry Christmas," he answered stoically, handing her a small box that looked suspiciously like a chocolate box. Tenten's stomach clenched.

"Thank you, Neji. Did you want to come in? I can make some tea," Tenten stepped aside to let him enter her apartment.

Luckily she hadn't burnt his Christmas gift, which she had been tempted to do last night. "This is for you, I picked it up on one of my solo missions. It made me think of you when I saw it," she babbled, handing him a small scroll. Quickly turning away from him, she began bustling around her small kitchen making the tea and some breakfast.

She didn't see the corners of his mouth twitch upwards. "A weapons scroll?" he guessed.

"No of course not!" she answered. "I need all the ones I can get my hands on already, I'm not going to just give them away, they're precious."

He unfurled the scroll and studied it. It was a beautiful watercolour of an eagle. "Thank you Tenten, it's beautiful." Neji smiled at her before carefully rolling it up again to bring home and hang up in his room. He gave her another small smile, "You have to open your present now."

Tenten smiled back at him uncertainly. Picking up the box, she carefully peeled off the wrapping and stared at the small chocolate box with a sinking feeling in her gut. At least it was expensive chocolate. But she had wanted it to be that ring she had helped Neji pick out. She had wanted that ring to be for her so much, she should never have gotten her hopes up in the first place.

"You know the actual gift is actually inside the box," pointed out Neji helpfully.

She snorted; trust him to point out the obvious. Fingers trembling slightly she opened the box slowly and stared at the chocolates blankly. Tenten didn't know what to think. "T-thank you Neji," she finally managed to stammer out. "I can't believe you got this for me." Sitting in the middle of one of the chocolates was the ring he had bought yesterday.

A broad smile crossed his face. "I had no idea what your taste in jewellery was like so I had to be sly about it," he explained. He took the ring from her and put it gently on her finger. "When I bought it, the store owner told me that in other cultures, this was a type of marriage ring but he was selling it as a promise ring." (2)

"A promise ring?" Tenten repeated.

Neji grinned at her sheepishly, "It's a commitment ring."

"I know that, but why are you giving it to me?"

"Because I love you Tenten and I can only hope that you love me in return," he shifted nervously. "You don't have to love me in that way in return and I will be happy even with just being friends, but this is something I had to get off my chest," Neji added hesitantly.

His pale lavender eyes locked onto hers steadily and she could see the anxiety on his face. She had no idea that he had harboured such feelings for her at all. Before she knew it, she had quickly crossed the distance between them and was kissing him fervently. It was a head spinning moment and when she finally pulled back, the first coherent thought she had was that his lips were soft and warm. Tenten didn't get much of a chance to think much more than that because Neji had pulled her towards him and had started kissing her passionately.

When they finally broke apart for air, Tenten pressed her flushed cheek against his and smiled happily.

"I love you too Neji."

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**A/N: OMG CORNY! I suck at writing kisses and romance! That was my first kiss btw... oh and I did footnotes today, go me.**

(1) I know in the song it's supposed to be 'five golden rings' but I personally prefer silver/white gold so too bad… the ring is white gold. I actually have a silver ring like this that I love random trivia about me.

(2) Russian wedding rings are actually like this but it's 3 interlocking rings not 5. More random trivia.


	6. Chapter 6

**Team Gai love coughscrackcoughs today! Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I.Heart.Hatake.Kakashi, demona013 and expecially DysphoricxKunOichix who reviews a lot of my stories regularly as well, you are a champ and this one is for you. Enjoy and feel free to leave a review and make my day! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor do I own Team Gai cues waterworks  
**

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**6. Eggs  
**

"Yosh! That is an incredible idea! Gai-sensei! You are amazing!" gushed Lee with tears in his eyes.

"Oh Lee!"

"Gai-sen-"

"You actually want us to have an egg and teaspoon tag team race as part of our training for today?" interrupted Tenten before the waterworks and sunset could begin. She could not see how this was supposed to benefit her in terms of improving her ninja skills. Both Tenten and Neji stared at their sensei incredulously.

"How is this supposed to make us better ninjas?" asked Neji, echoing her thoughts. He folded his arms across his chest and glared at his sensei.

"It will improve your control, precision and most of all, your Youth!" replied the green spandex-clad jounin like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Gai then proceeded to give him the good guy pose, complete with pinging, blinding teeth.

"I feel as youthful as a newborn baby Gai-sensei and so does Neji, can we go do some REAL training now?" asked the brunette kunoichi. She tapped her foot impatiently.

"Oh delicate flower! You and Neji must share your youth with us then!" exclaimed Gai as he thrust spoons into their hands before brandishing a carton of eggs wildly around. Amazingly none of the eggs broke. Lee began jumping around, he was literally about to burst with excitement.

Neji and Tenten sweat dropped.

"Neji and Lee, you both shall be in one team and I shall be with our youthful flower!" declared Gai as he proceeded to crush Tenten with a one-armed hug. "The first runner shall run a lap around the training grounds and when they return to the start, the changeover shall take place. Neji and Tenten you both can start first!" Gai winked at his protégé Lee.

Both Neji and Tenten were given an egg each to place in their spoon and they lined up at the starting line. Tenten shook her head, she could not believe she was doing something as juvenile as this.

"ON YOUR MARKS! READY! STEADY! GO!" bellowed Gai.

Tenten began running dutifully, being careful not to drop the egg, Neji was drawing ahead of her so she sped up until she drew abreast with her only other sane team mate. Or so she thought… Neji turned his head towards her slightly, he had a competitive glint in his lavender eyes. He suddenly bumped her as they ran and she nearly dropped her egg. She stopped in the middle of the run and grabbed his shoulder so he couldn't get away from her. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR YOU JERK!" yelled Tenten.

"It's a competition, ninjas do whatever it takes to get the mission done and our mission is to win the race," replied Neji calmly.

She glared at him momentarily before grabbing HIS egg and then smashing it against his chest. The yolk began running down the front of his shirt.

"That's not fair!" he snapped. He glowered at her, it was a good shirt as well!

"Well trying to knock me over while we're both running isn't fair either!"

Neji glared at her. He then snatched the egg from her spoon and broke it over her head so the runny sticky mess dribbled down her hair. There was a dead silence as Tenten gingerly touched the mess in her hair. Then all hell broke loose.

"SOSHORYU!"

"KAITEN!"

A furious battle commenced. "Noooo Neji! Tenten! We haven't completed our race yet!" exclaimed Lee with tears in his eyes.

Gai pointed the carton of eggs at his students admonishingly, "You're both not behaving youthfully!" But neither the Hyuuga prodigy or the Weapons Mistress were listening to him. A few stray kunai flew at the green spandex-loving ninjas, narrowly missing them by centimetres. Suddenly Neji came barrelling towards them, sprinting away from Tenten.

"SORYU TENSAKAI!"

Both Lee and Gai screamed in terror and Neji kaitened as if his life depended on it…which it did. Luckily for them, they were protected by his chakra shield. But unluckily for the eggs that Gai had thrown up into the air when Tenten had attacked them, they shattered under the force of Tenten's attack and Neji's defence and splattered everywhere, but mostly on Tenten. When Neji finally stopped spinning, all three male members of Team Gai gazed at Tenten in horror. She glared at them from under the dripping layer of eggs that covered her from head to toe and pulled out a weapons scroll menacingly.

Neji, Gai and Lee ran for their lives.

* * *

Gai would never ever suggest having an egg and spoon race ever again. Lee developed a phobia of raw eggs. Neji learnt to tone down his competitive side whenever he was around Tenten and, the egg incident was never ever mentioned in her presence in case it triggered a rage blackout and she went on a rampage again. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Ok, I'm kinda writing against a rather tight deadline which is why I"m updating so fast for once... so I'm sorry if this chap just doesn't seem to be about anything in particular. Enjoy and feel free to make my day ie. tell me how much you love me... lol you don't really have to do that, I'd be happy if you just left a review heehee. Thank you to all who've reviewed so far! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto... I don't even own the themes for this drabble collection... **

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**7. Swim  
**

"Ugh! Neji, when are we going to reach civilisation?" asked Tenten grumpily. They were on their way back to Konoha after a mission and both ninja were covered in mud from head to toe. The first thing she wanted to do was have a nice long hot bath and to scrub all this gunk off her skin. She didn't particularly care that it was supposed to be good for her skin. She felt disgusting and dirty and she just wanted a bath, was that too much to ask? The sun shone down blisteringly and she could feel the mud beginning to harden.

Her team mate sighed and activated his Byakugan. "We should reach Konoha by tonight. There's a river a mile west from here though."

Tenten whooped with excitement and took off towards it. Neji hissed through clenched teeth with annoyance, "Tenten! Wait!" He ran after her. If she got ambushed by missing nin he was not going to give her the chance to blame him for it. The hardening layer of mud he was covered in was making it difficult to travel fast as well.

When he finally caught up with her, she was already removing all her weapons, dropping them lightly onto the ground. She then pulled her hair free from her hair ties, shaking it out, before removing her outer clothes and diving into the water in her undergarments without a thought about her modesty, nor the fact that she was in the presence of a very embarrassed male. Neji blushed deeply. "Tenten, what are you doing?"

She emerged after a few minutes, grinning and dripping wet. Her undergarments had quickly become transparent but she didn't seem to notice. "The water is cold!" she informed him excitedly. "Come into the water, it feels great and it gets the mud off as well!"

Neji stood stiffly by the river bank, "Tenten we should be on our way back to Konaha to give Tsunade our report."

"Oh don't be so uptight, she's not going to mind if we went for a little swim on the way home," cajoled Tenten. She splashed water at him before leaping into the sparkling blue river once more.

He watched her frolic for a moment, before removing his weapons and outer robes and diving in after her.


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank you to my regular reviewers and to everyone who faved this story or put it on alert it's much appreciated. Enjoy! **

**Discliamer: I do not own Naruto nor do I own any maid outfits  
**

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**8. Maid  
**

Neji had to consciously stop himself from grinning widely ear to ear when he saw Tenten in the maid outfit that she had to wear for the mission they had both been assigned. It was short, tight and screamed 'Take me! Take me now!' His team mate would have no problem causing a distraction for the assassination he was to execute.

She scowled and tried to tug down the black skirt that barely covered her bottom. "I hate this; it makes me look like a stripper!" Tenten attempted to pull her frilly white apron down to cover her thighs but failed miserably. Instead, her attempts caused the neckline of her dress to expose even more of her cleavage.

Don't activate your Byakugen; do not under any circumstances activate your Byakugen, he told himself repeatedly. Like a mantra.

"Neji, my face is UP here NOT down there," growled Tenten.

He shook himself out of his trance. "I wasn't looking down there at all," he lied. "Don't just assume which direction I'm looking in just because I don't have discernible pupils" he said huffily for added effect.

"Whatever," said Tenten, rolling her eyes. "Let's just get this stupid mission over and done with anyway."

Needless to say, Tenten performed her part of the mission outstandingly, distracting every single male in the room and even the few females there, who were all glaring at her with barely concealed jealousy. Neji on the other hand nearly failed his part of the mission because he got too distracted. After reading the report, Tsunade decided that it would be better NOT to send Tenten on kunoichi missions with this particular male team mate of hers from now on.


	9. Chapter 9

** Ever wondered how Neji got promoted to Jounin? Read and find out...Thank you to everyone who reviewed my previous chapters, I hope you all enjoy this somewhat, my ideas are getting worse and worse cos I'm trying to finish everything by tomorrow... Feel free to leave a review and make my day! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, sniff sniff **

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**9. Queen  
**

"Your mission is to go undercover as two newly hired maids and act as guards to the rich merchant who hired you for a week," Tsunade drawled. She smiled at the two chuunins standing before her.

"But I'm the only female," interrupted Tenten, furrowing her brow questioningly.

"Seeing as all the other suitable female kunoichi are otherwise occupied with other missions, Neji is to go in drag, he has the long hair to pull it off," replied Tsunade with a smirk.

Shocked, Tenten turned to her sparring partner questioningly. A stranger would never have noticed the tightening around the corners of his mouth and the way his hands clenched momentarily. "I refuse this mission," he told Tsunade stoically.

"Really? Even if I promote you to Jounin on the condition that you do this mission for me?" the Godaime asked slyly. She had a calculating glint in her eyes.

Neji stiffened as he considered his options.

"You know how much harder it will be for you to make Jounin if you get on my bad side," Tsunade continued with an evil glint in her eyes.

He gulped and his eyes flickered to Tenten, looking for support or sympathy. Instead he saw a growing grin spread across her face.

"I," he began uncertainly. Both females were staring at him with excited anticipatory grins plastered on their faces. Neji glared at them, this was so unfair, having to choose between his self-respect and achieving jounin rank.

Tsunade finally relented, she was being rather cruel to the poor boy. "How about we keep the details of this mission secret? And if Tenten here blabs, she gets demoted to Genin."

Tenten's jaw dropped, "You can't do that!"

The blonde Hokage ignored her and gazed steadily into Neji's pale eyes to wait for his reply.

He mulled it over for a while, for once, indecision was clearly written on his face before Neji finally nodded grimly.

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**A/N: Yeah... the ending kinda sucked... sorry...**


	10. Chapter 10

** I love playing Texas Hold'em poker even though I really suck at it... Anyhoo, I hope you all like it still. THank you to demona013 and I.Heart.Hatake.Kakashi for reviewing! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto as much as I wish I did  
**

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** 10. King  
**

Tenten watched her team mate warily over the top of her cards. She was careful to keep her face smooth of any expression. Neji on the other hand, had a default poker face so it was impossible to know whether he got a good hand or not. He had bluffed her a few times already. It wouldn't have been so bad but the problem was that they were playing with real money and she was running out of hers already.

He burned a card and dealt three cards. It was an eight and two kings. His pale eyes fixed onto her brown ones calmly and he raised an eyebrow.

"I check," she murmured.

"I raise you $20," he replied smoothly, throwing the $20 bill into the pile of cash in the middle of the table.

"I meet," she said and carefully placed her money on the same pile.

Neji burned a card then flipped over the next card. A three of hearts. Tenten thought she detected a slight grimace out of the corner of her eye but it was probably her imagination. When she had acted on such things, she had ended up losing money.

"I bet $10," she finally said after much careful consideration.

"I meet."

He burnt the next card and turned over the last card, a ten of diamonds.

"I bet $20," Tenten said reluctantly.

"I raise you $20," Neji replied and leaned back to watch her.

Tenten chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully, "Fine, I'm going all in." She pushed her remaining money into the pile.

Neji added some more money from his pile to meet her amount. "Shall we show?" he asked, pales eyes crinkling ever so slightly at the corners as he smirked. He turned over his two cards, a pair of aces. "Two pair," he smiled smugly at her.

Tenten stared at the cards he had revealed before slowly turning her own cards, a pair of kings. "Four of a kind. HAH! I owned your sorry butt!" she exclaimed happily bouncing up and down in her seat.

Neji's smirk fell of his face, "Hn, lets play again."

"I am so going to beat you tonight," she continued teasingly.

"We'll see about that," he replied, his smirk returning.

It was going to be a late night tonight.


	11. Chapter 11

** I'm sorry if there's heaps of mistakes in this but I have a tight deadline here peoples! After this I'll be overseas so will be taking a short break from writing fanfic but I'll be trying to think up ideas for the other stories I'm still working on. Thank you to my two lovely regular reviewers, you both encourage me heaps otherwise I probbly wouldn't really bother with this. Also I really want a banner... Try to enjoy this, it's not my best I'm afraid...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I couldn't play the flute to save my life... **

* * *

** 11. Flute  
**

The music started up softly that evening. Tenten gazed out of her window into the darkness intently, trying to spot the flautist who kept serenading her every Friday night. It just so happened to be the nights she happened to finish training with Neji early. Her night vision was no where near as good as Neji's so after peering into the darkness for a few minutes; she gave up before returning to her task of brushing out her hair after a nice long soak in the bath tub. It wasn't bad music at all, in fact it was very good flute playing, but she just wished that the person would just reveal himself to her.

Tenten sighed and quickly began running through a quick list of possible candidates in her mind.

Naruto? No, he would have told her to her face and made it blindingly obvious. The same went for Lee.

Chouji? Probably not, she didn't think she would be his type, she was the type of girl who would fight over food with him, unlike Ino who was always fanatical about what she ate.

Shikamaru? Unlikely, she wasn't very good at Shougi.

Kiba? Also unlikely, he was like Naruto and Lee, the type more likely to tell her outright that he fancied her. She had almost fed Akamaru chocolate once, not knowing that chocolate made him really sick and Kiba had never fully gotten over that.

Shino? No idea, no ones knew what went on with Shino. She hated bugs though so they wouldn't get along too well, so he was also unlikely.

Sasuke? Probably not, he hated girls despite wanting to repopulate his clan. Ironical really…

Neji? She was afraid to get her hopes up. She had had a crush on him for as long as she could remember but he had never treated her as more than just a friend. But then again, it was hard to know what was really going on in his head half the time.

Deciding that it would continue to be an unsolved mystery, Tenten flopped on her bed and listened to the gentle lulling flute music before drifting off to sleep.

* * *

The mysterious flautist stood up from his hidden spot in the tree, the moonlight reflecting off his eyes. He gave a small smile as he watched Tenten peacefully sleep through her open bedroom window and went home.

* * *

Training as usual. Tenten took up her stance and readied herself for Neji's onslaught. He in turn took up his stance and studied her for any weaknesses with those unreadable eyes of his. Suddenly they heard somebody approach their training ground and both ninja turned to see who it was.

"Hinata-sama," greeted Neji formally.

Tenten smiled and waved at the girl, "Hi Hinata-chan!"

"H-hello N-Neji niisan and T-tenten-chan, I h-hope I'm s-sorry to interrupt."

"It's ok Hinata, what's up?" asked Tenten cheerfully.

"N-Neji, Father w-wants you to g-go home because A-aunt Hisa wants t-to see how much y-your flute playing h-has progressed," she stuttered shyly and blushed.

Tenten reeled in shock, Neji played the flute? Did that mean…. she turned to stare at him. He turned a bright tomato red and quickly fled. Hinata bowed slightly to her before following her cousin, "Goodbye T-Tenten-chan." Tenten's jaw continued to hang open as she watched the other Hyuuga girl walk away from her.

* * *

**A/N: This is rather lame in my opinion, I'm sorry. I promise the last one will be better!  
**


	12. Chapter 12

**Lucky last chapter! Yay, now I can get myself a banner! Ok, this is going to be my last piece for a while until I return from overseas. Hopefully I'll be all refreshed with great ideas for my other stories... Thank you especially to demona013 and I.Heart.Hatake.Kakashi for always reviewing and everyone else who did drop me a few words now and then. Also thank you to everyone who put this story on their favourites or on story alert, awwww. I hope you enjoy this one! Spread the Nejiten love! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto but I do own a pair of drumsticks **

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**12. Drum**

Tenten was an extremely active child when she was young. Her father fondly described her as his little terror and her mother would sigh as she watched Tenten destroy yet another piece of furniture/clothing/appliance/whatever little Tenten could get her hands on. Her inherent destructive streak was the reason why her parents decided that Tenten's calling in life involved destroying things. They debated between sending her off to either become a ninja or to be a fireworks technician's apprentice. When Tenten discovered stationary and began throwing them at the local neighbourhood cats and dogs and pinning them to trees by their collars with said stationary, her parents realised that her aim would serve her good stead as a ninja and enrolled her in the Academy accordingly.

Throughout her years at the Academy and developing her skills as a ninja calmed her down somewhat. She no longer pinned the neighbourhood cats and dogs to trees. She still sometimes destroyed pieces of furniture/clothing/appliances/whatever she got her hands on by accident, but it was no where near the same scale that she did when she was four. Her parents had also thought that training constantly with that handsome Hyuuga prodigy friend of hers (Tenten's mother secretly hoped that they would one day declare their everlasting love for each other and marry and start producing grandchildren for her) would have channelled all of her destructive energy. But sadly, they were very wrong.

It all started when Tenten's father had returned from one of his missions with a present for her, a large hand drum. Tenten had grinned widely from ear to ear, thanking her father enthusiastically before holing herself up in her room and hitting it. A lot. Tenten liked hitting stuff. It was fun, and the hand drum was designed to be hit and thus, was not easily destroyed. She liked hitting it so much, she bought herself a drum kit and that involved even more drums for her to hit. Tenten planned to branch out into getting more latin percussion instruments like the timbales, which made a very nice loud sound.

* * *

Neji frowned and crossed his arms. Tenten was late and he had noticed that recently, she seemed to have developed some rather strange habits of constantly hitting the table with a pair of chopsticks until the chopsticks broke. She had also lost some of the ferocity in her attacks whenever they trained. He decided that the best course of action would be to drag her to the training grounds from her home and demand an explanation for her strange behaviour. When he arrived, he rang the doorbell but nobody answered. There also seemed to be a constant thumping noise emanating from inside. Perturbed, he walked around the side of the house and saw Tenten's mother washing the dishes in the kitchen. Neji tried to get her attention by tapping on the window but she didn't seem to notice him and continued to blissfully scrub the dishes. He then waved at her and the movement caught her eye. She finally looked up and gave him a cheery smile. The brunette woman opened the side door for him and ushered him in, "Oh hello Neji, nice of you to visit." A wall of sound assaulted him when he stepped into the house.

"Good morning, I was looking for Tenten, is she still here?" he shouted as politely as he could over the noise.

The woman smiled at him, "Sorry, what did you say?" She then removed her ear plugs.

"Good morning, I was looking for Tenten, she's late for training," repeated Neji. He looked around; he could hear the thumping noise even more clearly inside the house. It was much louder and seemed to be coming from all directions. He could actually feel the thumping noise.

Her mother pointed upstairs amiably before putting her ear plugs back in and returning to the dishes in the sink. Neji covered his ears with his hands and made his way up to Tenten's room. He hadn't thought it would be possible but the wall of sound intensified as soon as he opened Tenten's door, knocking would have been pointless.

She was happily smashing away at her drumkit with a pair of very battered looking drumsticks. So this was where the sound was emanating from, he thought to himself. Tenten stopped and gave him a bright smile when she saw him. "Hi Neji! What are you doing here?"

He finally removed his hands from his ears, "You're late for training," he pointed out grumpily.

Her mouth formed a perfect o, "Oh I'm so sorry Neji I completely forgot! I'll come to training now!" With that she dropped her drumsticks and rushed out the door.

Neji surveyed the drums in her room suspiciously, so this was his team mate's new hobby and why she had been acting so strangely lately. He would have to do something about that. The Hyuuga prodigy then followed Tenten to the training grounds, deep in thought.

* * *

"Tenten was late today," Neji said sourly. The brunette kunoichi threw him a dirty look.

"How come?" asked Lee innocently.

"She was playing drums," Neji replied dourly.

"Tenten do you really play drums now?" asked Lee excitedly.

She nodded happily, "It's so much fun! I've started up quite a collection now, you should come over and I'll show you. You're included too Neji, you didn't get much of a chance to see it this morning." She dragged both her team mates back to her house, babbling about the different types of drums, techniques and styles of rhythm there were non-stop. This was how she used to talk about her weapons. When Tenten fell in love with something, she went about learning everything she could about that thing wholeheartedly.

Neji inwardly rolled his eyes but he kept his mouth wisely shut. Lee just kept asking her questions. For Kami's sake, he thought to himself crossly, those two just keep feeding off each other. Team Gai finally reached Tenten's house and she dragged them up to her room to see her drums immediately.

The Hyuuga prodigy sighed as he watched his other team mates gush over her percussion collection. "Tenten," he finally said, "I'm going to get myself something to drink, do you and Lee want anything?"

"Water please!" they both answered him in unison before returning to what they were doing before, which was patting Tenten's conga set reverently.

Neji then went down to the kitchen and found three glasses and filled them up accordingly and brought them up to her room. He handed each of his team mates a glass each before leaning against the wall and sipping from his glass boredly. Both Tenten and Lee gulped their glass down quickly, not really caring what it tasted like.

"Oh Tenten are you going to demonstrate your-" and his eyes glazed over.

"Demonstrate my what?" asked Tenten, she looked at her team mate worriedly, he looked…drunk? Oh no, she thought.

"Whaaat are you looking at punk?" he snapped as he dropped into his drunken fist stance.

"Nothing," she squeaked, backing away from him. "Come on Lee, let's get you home, I think you've had enough for today," she added carefully.

"Don't touch me you sschultry wretch," yowled Lee, picking up a tom-tom, swinging it wildly and smashing it into her drumkit.

She wrung her hands frantically, "My babies!" Tenten cried. She tried to stop him from destroying all her precious percussion and ran after the young green beast, but failed to restrain him miserably. After many loud crashes and many cries of 'NO! Don't break that!' Neji finally picked up the last standing conga and hit Lee hard over the head with it and with that, both Lee and the drum went down. Tenten stared at both her team mates numbly and surveyed her destroyed percussion collection and nearly wept.

After having taken the unconscious Lee home, Neji returned to help Tenten clean up the trail of destruction he had left behind. When they finally finished, they both sat down wearily. "Maybe it's a sign," Tenten sighed.

"That taking up percussion is a bad idea?"

"Yeah… but I just don't understand how his glass of water ended up having alcohol in it, we don't have any in our house," mused Tenten.

"Something must have been in the pipes or maybe your mum used a cleaning agent that had alcohol in it?" suggested Neji helpfully.

"Maybe… I'm still going to kill Lee though next time I see him."

Neji patted her shoulder comfortingly, and smiled to himself evilly, everything had gone exactly to plan…


End file.
